Ashley Square To Offer Senior Life-care Facilities

June 1, 1985

PLANTATION — An era of senior care facilities in expansive campus-like settings for active residents will make its debut this year in Plantation, where plans are going ahead for the development of 16-acre Ashley Square virtually within sight of the busy Broward Mall.

Ashley Square will have spacious grounds for recreational and social purposes, on a site that may be unmatched anywhere in Florida for combining a country atmosphere with the life-care concept in the heart of a city.

The location on Northwest Fourth Street is across the street from both the Plantation City Hall and the Chamber of Commerce headquarters -- ``a circumstance that illustrates well the new theory of urban activity for senior care residents within the protective quiet of great lawns, trees and gardens,`` according to John Cappeller and W. Michael Brinkley of the development firm, Florida Villages, Inc. Also across the street is the police station.

As a rule, they pointed out, people who select the senior care mode of living after they retire ``have to choose between being on a city street or outside the town.``

Ashley Square residents will live in leased apartments in generously spaced low-rise buildings clustered with a small golf course, a swimming pool, a clubhouse and an assortment of sun decks and patios.

With the size of the property, Cappeller commented, ``even all this will leave a great deal of open space.``

The 16-acre estate is to the Plantation community what the historic Bartlett estate is to Fort Lauderdale residents, to a degree, Cappeller said.

The Bartlett estate, consisting of some 12 acres on the oceanfront, was the original home of pioneer Hugh Taylor Birch, dating back to the early 1900s. Last year, it was acquired by the state for historic preservation purposes and the manor house is in the process of being restored.

Similarly, the land on which Ashley Square is to be built was part of the original holdings of the Frederick Peters family, which acquired most of what is the central section of Plantation in the 1940s and began developing it later in that decade.

When a large portion of the Peters holdings was acquired by Gulfstream Land & Development Corp., the Ashley Square property was included. It has remained virtually untouched since the Peters era, however, and since it was acquired from Gulfstream by the Ashley Square developers, Florida Villages, Inc., ``we have devoted considerable time and thought to ways of making the best use of it in consideration of its important location and its significance to the people of Plantation,`` Brinkley said.

On the estate will be 248 apartments, with 126 of them having two bedrooms and two baths, the others, one bedroom and one bath. Additonally, there will be a health care center having 59 beds, with 16 of the units having two bedrooms.

The building designs by Plantation architect Ronald Kall provide for spacious balconies and, for many apartments, curved windows giving views of the city in several directions.

Lying just southwest is Plantation`s increasingly busy main intersection, where Broward Boulevard meets University Drive -- actually ``downtown Broward,`` in the eyes of city officials and business leaders.

This, they say, already is the geographical center of the county and soon it will be the hub from the standpoint of population as well.

At the intersection are the Broward Mall, several new office buildings and hundreds of stores, along awith dining places, service shops and medical offices. Just to the north, a new shopping center, possibly including a Macy`s store, is planned.

Ashley Square residents will have all-day free transportation to that district and other parts of the area for shopping, dining, movies, worship services, cultural activities and sporting events.

While Ashley Square will have its own 59-bed health care facility on the top floor of the centermost of the three buildings. the number of full-service hospitals in the vicinity and the city of Plantation`s crack emergency medical service provide additional assurance in this regard, Cappeller said.

Cappeller`s associates in the development, in addition to Brinkley, a Fort Lauderdale attorney, are Fort Lauderdale mortgage banker and civic leader Harvey Ramsey, and another Fort Lauderdale lawyer, Wallace W. Kennedy. Cappeller, a marketing specialist, is a long-time South Florida resident who lives in Boca Raton.

It was assumed from the beginning, he said, that the residents of Ashley Square ``will be largely people who have lived for some years in South Florida, and either here or in their home towns, have become oriented to city conveniences.

``We knew the geographical location, in a thriving suburban environment, would appeal to them -- but it was important, too, to have plenty of open space and, of course, the customary recreational facilities.``

Already in effect at the site are wine and cheese receptions every Wednesday afternoon, open to persons who are inspecting life-care communities in South Florida.